Thanks to Ben Davis for a really nice shoutout on artnet News! He listed our follow-up piece on the Gramsci Monument as one of the most important art essays of the year, along with Molly Crabapple’s Saadiyat Island reporting and Trevor Paglen’s Creative Time report. Needless to say, it’s a huge honor. [artnet News]

The MTA is finally getting rid of the subway alarms on the emergency exits, a Bloomberg era invention “to curb fare evasion”. In practice, they annoyed us all on a daily basis. [WNYC via Animal New York]

Something about this Stefan Simchowitz article reminds me of Ariel Levy’s 2007 New York Magazine article on Dash Snow. The contentiousness of its subject becomes a mythologizing force. A good read. [The New York Times Magazine]

Another government delivers an extremely harsh punishment to a fairly benign feminist artwork. Megumi Igarashi, the artist behind the vagina kayak, has been indicted with a potential two-year jail sentence for distributing “obscene” material by distributing the data which allows others to 3D print vagina kayaks. As a testament to the project’s prominence, it comes up first when you google “vagina”. [NPR, via artnet News]

One of the best editorials we’ve read from the New York Times Editorial Board ever. The subject: The NYPD. (And for the second day in a row). A good way to close out the year at The Times. [The New York Times]

An 84-year-old man was found dead in the water at Spa Castle in Queens. The body was discovered when a woman felt something at her feet. [NBC]

In January, you’ll be able to bid on items from the New York City Opera in a bankruptcy auction. [Playbill]

Collectors are hungry for Cuban art, it seems. The New York Times predicts a boom in sales in anticipation of open relations between the U.S. and Cuba. Dealer Magnan Metz told the Times he is “now booked through March with Cuba visits.” [New York Times]

Predictions for emoji of 2015 that are better than the shruggie. [Medium]

And the final Miami reports continue to come in! “NADA is like Williamsburg to ABMB’s Manhattan: hip, relaxed and scruffy, and a little too much.” I haven’t seen scruff and relaxed since Portland. [Scene & Herd]

“Who buys all this shit?” and other questions raised by Christian Viveros-Fauné, when considering art fair art. “[B]eauty is passing, dumb is forever.” [artnet News]

Matthew Leifheit looks at people looking up at the Freedom Tower. [VICE]

Ew ew ew ew ew ew: artist makes soy sauce out of human hair. He was making it because he heard a rumor that China already makes it. [Vulture]

Oh, and the NYPD shot and killed someone inside a synagogue after the assailant stabbed a student at prayer early this morning. It’s on video. [NY Daily News]

There was a two-faced cat, and they lived ‘til the age of 15. Rest in peace, Frank and Louie. [io9]

Also in animal miracles, we forgot to link to this swimming owl last week. A must-watch. [Gawker]

So far, Playboy wins the Art Basel slideshows by a mile, a round-up which, unlike what’s been appearing on art publications, at least includes a moment of reflection. “Does anything truly exceptional go on here or is it all hype?” wonders Zak Stone. Hype. [Playboy]

If you live in Philadelphia, Detroit, or St. Paul, you might want to tune in to hear Bad at Sports interview Tatiana Hernandez of the Knight Foundation. She “manages a portfolio of over 350 grantees, totaling nearly $100 million in investments.” Take notes. [Bad at Sports]

Gift idea for the rich: A pink-and-yellow smiling-flower pillow from Takashi Murakami. It’s only $400! [Artspace]

Wall Street Journalist critic Joanne Kaufman has been banned from receiving free press passes from some Broadway agencies. Rick Miramontez of press agency O&M wrote a blog post expressing his dismay at Kaufman, who recently penned a column about leaving during intermission. She’s still welcome, Miramontez wrote, “If she deems a show of ours worthy enough for her (fleeting) attention, she is more than welcome to call us to arrange tickets – but she had better have a credit card handy.” [Playbill]

Tweets of Old is posting letters to Santa from the early 1900s. Among other stuff, children asked for bananas, a waste paper basket, and wood. [Tweets of Old]

Seattle police in riot gear have outfitted themselves as Robocops with bike helmets, according to this twitpic. [Twitter]

Watch a group of dancers vogue their way around the Philadelphia subway system. I’m not sure there’s much more to say about this video other than that these dancers are crazy good; their moves put Madonna (whose video for “Vogue” famously took the dance style from the ‘80s black gay ballroom culture) to shame. “Voguing Train” is a refreshing reminder, too, of what you can make with not much more than a camera and your body. We’d love to encounter this here in New York on our commute, but with the NYPD cracking down on subway performers, that probably isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

In a remarkable case of irony, the NYPD has attempted to censor an art installation about free speech. Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s upcoming Park Avenue tunnel installation, Voice Tunnel is an open platform, allowing anyone to say whatever they want through an intercom that will translate the noise into waves of light and sound. The NYPD, however, wanted to include a 6-second delay, in case they needed to censor anything dangerous. They compromised: a monitor will stand by as people speak, and, in case of anything really incendiary, there is a button to delete the recording.

This is a uniquely appropriate issue for Lozano-Hemmer, whose work often concerns free speech and monitoring the public.

The artist talks with us about how he feels about the intervention, and what the censorship will look like.

Leading up to the release of “The Shining” sequel, the Times has done an exhaustive profile on Stephen King’s family, all of them, prolific writers. [New York Times]

“This “modern global exchange” is what we critics like to call a “restaurant.” That’s New York Times food critic Pete Wells, tearing PRspeak a new asshole. The food at ABC Cocina actually sounds very good. [New York Times]

French porcelain manufacturer Bernardaud issued some awesome special edition dinnerware by big name artists like Jeff Koons and David Lynch, because who doesn’t want to eat off a $380 naked lady? [ARTnews]

Who says the aristocracy is dead? Viscount Allendale and his wife visited the National Gallery of Art to see a hundred million dollar painting once owned by his great-great-grandfather, but sold for petty cash. It’s okay, though. They still have a Rembrandt. [Washington Post]

Charles Isherwood was intrigued but exhausted by the bizarre, international smorgasbord of theater offered at the Lincoln Center Festival, which ended last weekend. [New York Times]

A wise choice: Jack Goldstein’s “The Jump” is coming to a Times Square billboard in August. [ARTInfo]

Ben Sutton reports that a sketch artist who drew the Manning case is selling her drawings to help cover Manning’s legal fees. As we found out yesterday, Manning was found not guilty of aiding the enemy, but on several counts of espionage and theft, enough to put him in prison for up to 130 years. [ARTInfo]

Update! On Monday, we brought you Tré Reising, a grad student who’s been making giant sculptures for rappers, which they then put in their videos. As promised, his tribute sculpture to RiFF RaFF made it in the backdrop of this Paper Mag story (second image down). Success. [Paper Mag]